Greek Islands . . .

I do not even know where to begin... My whole 2 weeks in the islands just seem like a massive dream and a little unreal now that I look back on it.
I arrived in Athens and almost cried. Having only ever travelled to Asia, to land in a European country was overwhelming and a bit of a shock to the system. I was so excited for the coming 2 weeks I couldn't contain myself.
My beautiful younger sister Alex and her bestie Georgia came to meet me at the airport and then we waited for our younger brother Kai to arrive.
Margarita was already in Greece so we met her later at our hotel in Monastiraki. The 5 of us were about to embark on a sun and alcohol fuelled 2 week party!
We caught the early morning ferry from Rafina to Mykonos and the second we arrived in Mykonos it was straight to the beach. Lined with straw umbrellas, restaurants and bars built traditionally with white paint and blue shutters and doors, crystal clear blue water, endless cocktails, eye candy for both guys and girls....
I'm rambling now.


Platys Gialos Beach - Mykonos

 After the beach, we all had a quiet night in as jet lag had struck Kai and I a little and couldn't muster the energy to do anything.
The next day we headed into Mykonos town to do the norm touristy sight seeing thing. We went to the windmills which look even better than they do on photographs, we watched endless waves crashing up against the houses in Little Venice, we saw Petros the famous Pelican that just waddles around town like a boss...
We ate gyro pitas, souvlaki sticks and got straight into the 2euro vodka breezers. When its that hot, and alcohol is that cheap, vodka tends to become second nature just like buying a bottle of water.
After looking in every shop possible, bottle in hand, it was time to head back and continue drinking/get ready for the night ahead.

We were enticed by a Jamaican promo boy that stood almost 7 foot tall called Buju, to buy tickets to Afrojack.. the 'not so cheap' price came with a free drink and a free shot. So we thought it was semi worth it, we were in Mykonos after all and not about to waste a minute!
We got out tickets and headed back to the hotel.
There were no DJs playing the first night so we walked 15 minutes around the rocks, walked through the central party beach of Paraga, then a further 10 minutes around the rocks to Paradise Beach and came to a beach bar called Tropicana. We'd only been there for 30 minutes and I was already having the time of my life... girls in bikinis dancing on the bar, guys in shorts on the podium rocking their socks! This place was great! Positioned ideally between the islands 2 biggest clubs, Paradise Beach Club and Cavo Paradiso, it was a struggle to NOT want to soldier on when Tropicana closed at 11pm.
Not much was on the first night, no special DJs but we still had a great night dancing until sunrise.

 
The next night, and the following 3 nights, we spent from 3pm to 7am drinking and dancing on podiums to the likes of Afrojack, Sven Vath and Paul Van Dyke. Slowly watching the sunrise over all the happy people, swimming in the pool which was conveniently place in the centre of the club, making friends with the most random of people from all over the world..
During the day, we mostly slept, or slept hungover by the pool, or the beach, curing our headaches with more daiquiris and chicken gyros... I semi regret not doing more during the day but we had TOO much fun during the night to have any form of energy to move a muscle by sunrise.


Afrojack at Paradise Beach Club - Mykonos

After Mykonos, it was a blurry 5 days in Ios... I never thought it could get more 'party scene' than Mykonos as Ios has no massive clubs but more bars, more smaller clubs and then some more bars. The 'club' entry and drinks were way cheaper than Mykonos, and even cheaper than you would find in Melbourne.. so, needless to say, the time spent in Ios just kind of melted into one very long night.
Whatever time we spent conscious, was spent at a gorgeous little cafe that served amazing breakfast and the best frappe lattes, we spent time on the beach and then, again, back to Far Out beach club to kick on at about 6pm...

Unfortunately, I didn't have as much time in Santorini as the others as I had my flight to catch back to Egypt/Malaysia/Melbourne... so the 12 hours I was there I made the most of it!
I met up with 3 beautiful girls we met in Mykonos and Ios, and they accompanied me to Oia for one of the most famous sunsets in the world.
I had been dreaming of this moment for years and every time I looked at a photo of Santorini, I would die a little from giving myself a mini heart attack that I would one day witness it for myself.
No photo I ever gazed at gave this place justice.
The girls and I found a spot on the lookout, and slowly waited as the sky got pinker, and the sun got redder.
After a while we figured it would take ages for the sun to set so we left our posi to grab a Greek salad at a cute cafe.
As we were eating, everyone (hundreds and hundreds of people) started clapping and cheering and we figured this must be the sunset so we left our table to watch. The brightest of red suns Ive ever seen was slowly disappearing into the horizon and people were taking happy snaps left right and centre.
I honestly have no words to describe how beautiful it was and hope one day soon I can go back and explore more of Santorini and the other islands.

After a brief stopover in Fira town with the girls, some frozen yoghurt and back to the room to pack my bag, it was time for me to leave for a 1am ferry back to Athens to spend one day exploring the Acropolis Ruins.
It was sad to say goodbye to Kai, Georgia and Margie, but I would be seeing them soon back in Melbourne. It was the hardest to say goodbye to Alex my sister as she was continuing on a year long journey around the world, back home at the end of April 2014.

Now, that I'm back in Melbourne, I'm back at work, back into the swing of things, dreaming of how splendid my bank account will look in a year to go back and do it all again plus more...

Until next time..

Keep dreaming.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH OUR TIME IN THE GREEK ISLANDS